The idea for this came from a book (Don't Die, My Love by Lurlene McDaniel), but the story line is something I thought of. The little quote towards the middle at the end came from the book, too. However, no deaths here ;) Just a cute, little fluffy one-shot that I decided to write.

I own nothing. Not HSM. Not the book. Nada. =)

Have fun reading!

The brunette sighed, shifting in her seat on the white painted bench. Her chocolate brown eyes darted around the place, the secret spot, wishing that her boyfriend would hurry up.

It wouldn't be bothering her as much, but his failure to show up the last three times they'd arrange to meet up was making her angrier at him by the minute.

She didn't care much anymore if basketball practice ran over. She didn't care if Chad absolutely needed Troy to go over to his house to see a new video game. He could at least call. But no, she had been left standing out there three times for over an hour, to have various excuses thrown at her the next day.

It wasn't that she wanted to break up with Troy. It was more of the complete opposite. She'd wanted to sit down and have a nice conversation with him.

She wanted to say three little words that she'd been keeping inside since Troy had taken her out on their 'anniversary' date. The day that they had become a couple the year before.

They'd been dating a bit over a year now, and by now they were extremely close. But the bond was beginning to whither.

Sadly, they had grown so busy lately that they could barely speak to the other. Other than the date every two weeks or so, the phone calls every other day, and the rushed lunch hour, there wasn't much time to spare.

She sighed, remembering the days when Troy would go out of his way to do just one little thing for her.

Flashback

Gabriella frowned as she entered the doors of East High, to be greeted by the usual group of cheerleaders that stood outside the door. Today, however, was too cold for anyone to be outside, even with the Albuquerque sun peeking through the overcast skies.

She wasn't in the best of spirits, and hearing talking and giggling girls somehow made her mood worse.

Her and Troy had been yelling at each other over the phone the night before, for stupid reasons that she couldn't even remember, now that she thought about it. It was their first real argument in their three weeks of dating each other.

Gabriella shook the thoughts out of her head, opening her locker once she reached it. She gave a puzzled look when a deep red rose fell to the ground as it slipped out of it's resting spot in her locker. Gabriella picked it up off the tiled floor, knowing already whom it was from. There was only one person who she shared her locker combination with, and that was Troy Bolton.

"Surprised?" A male voice from behind her asked, causing her to jump a bit.

She turned around, her face softening. All she could do was get captured in his embrace. She didn't care who was staring, just as long as she was in the company of Troy. She hadn't realized it the night before, but she had missed knowing he would be there for her the next day.

"I'm sorry. I was being stupid last night. I-" Gabriella stopped as Troy put his finger over her mouth.

"I should also be sorry," He began, his ocean-blue eyes getting the gaze of her chocolate brown ones. "But I'd like you to promise one thing."

"What's that?" She asked as he removed his finger from her lips.

"That every time you get a flower, I can kiss you, no matter how angry we are at each other." Troy said, with a sly smile creeping onto his face.

Gabriella giggled at the memory. They'd gotten detention for that, and it certainly wasn't the last time. At least once a week, she'd find some kind of flower in her locker.

Somehow, Ms. Darbus had seemed to understand what they were up to, and made it her mission to catch them every time they kissed.

And she did. Every time Troy would give Gabriella a flower on campus, she'd be somewhere near. At the time, though, it'd been worth the twenty-minute detention.

Gabriella was just about to get up, not wanting to be late for her babysitting job when her boyfriend came stumbling up the stairs. She gave him a little glare, but he just grabbed onto the rail, obviously tired from running, and caught his breath.

"I'm...sorry..." He said between breaths. "Practice...late..."

"I know," She said quietly, expecting that excuse. The championship game had been moved back a month from last year, and so it now took place in February. Practice was wearing their relationship down, and Gabriella knew it. She took her seat back on the bench. "You're busy."

"What's wrong?" Troy asked, coming to sit next to his girlfriend. He could sense that something was wrong, but he didn't know what.

"You should know." She said just as quietly, but her words were meant to be less than kind.

"What?" Troy asked, confused. He pulled his backpack off, and Gabriella noticed he was still wet from the shower in the locker room.

"All we ever seem to do now is put stuff off." Gabriella replied.

"No we don't." Troy gave Gabriella a look.

"Then why have you missed the last three meetings we've scheduled?" She asked, a bit harsher than she meant to say it.

"'Scheduled'? Is that what this relationship is? A tight schedule that if we miss something, the whole world comes to an end?" Troy was getting agitated at Gabriella's unwillingness to talk in normal sentences.

"Well, if it was, the world would be long gone by now. You've already messed with it three times." Gabriella muttered, trying to add a bit of humor to her situation. Troy didn't hear her, staring into space, thinking and waiting for her next comeback.

"No, it isn't, Troy." Gabriella finally said.

"Then what is it?" He asked.

"I thought it was chemistry. A friendship. A deep connection to each other. But I guess I was wrong." She sniffled, trying to cover up her tears.

"Gabriella," He lifted up her chin. "It still is. We're just a little preoccupied. Me with basketball, and you with your studies. I never knew it bothered you this much."

"You didn't know? You didn't realize? Troy! I've had to get a babysitting job to occupy myself! I wanted this meeting to be special! But you can't make it that way. I'm nearly late, thanks to you." With that, she got up and spun on her heel, then walked out, leaving Troy dumbfounded.

Later, Gabriella was sitting on the couch reading a book, while the children she was watching were bouncing around to 'Kiss the Girl' while watching 'The Little Mermaid'.

The Bekhand children were usually good, but since they had been eating candy earlier, they had been bouncing off the walls for the past two hours. Luckily, it was only thirty minutes until bedtime, so they were beginning to calm down slightly.

The youngest-who was three-started to yawn, as she began to curl up on the spot on the couch next to Gabriella.

"Is someone getting sleepy?" She asked the little girl, as she gave a tired nod. "Then let's get you to bed, Savannah." She smiled warmly, picking the small girl up. She gently helped Savannah into her pajamas and laid her into the small toddler bed in the room that she shared with her nine-year-old sister, Kaytlin.

Once she was sure the little girl was asleep, Gabriella went back downstairs to get the other two.

"Okay you two, bedtime." Gabriella switched off the TV in the living room.

"It's an hour past the time you should have been in bed." Gabriella giggled. The two reluctantly sighed and trudged up the stairs.

It didn't take long to get the two settled in; and apart from the occasional check-ins on the sleeping children, Gabriella now had three hours to kill. One last check on Savannah, and Gabriella was going back down the stairs to claim her spot on the armchair that she had sat in to keep watch on the children playing earlier.

To make very little noise, she picked up her book that was on the chair-side table and began to read it. However, she began to let her thoughts drift back to her relationship problems. She began to think of how long it had been since she and Troy had had a heart-to-heart conversation.

It wasn't until now that she really missed his sweet actions that he used to take to just put a smile on her face.

Her phone began to vibrate, causing her to jump. She flipped it open, to see that there was a text message. It couldn't be her mother; her job didn't end for another forty-five minutes, and her mother knew that.

"Taylor?" She asked herself, skeptically seeing the caller ID, wondering what her friend wanted. Taylor knew very well that she had a babysitting job tonight. That's why she had declined going to the movies with her and Chad after basketball practice.

Still curious, she scrolled to the text message.

"Go outside?" Gabriella repeated what the text said, even more confused than ever. She went to the front door, looking around in the window before opening. It was obvious nobody was there.

Or, at least anybody in the viewing area of the small window.

Slowly, she pulled open the door. Although she nearly stepped on it, she caught herself.

On the doorstep was a single white daisy. She picked it up, wondering why Taylor had left her a white daisy.

Gabriella turned around, ready to go call Taylor from her cell phone to ask what all this was about, when a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist.

"Surprised?" Asked a soft voice.

"Troy?" She spun around as best she could in his grip. "I didn't even hear you!"

"That's a good thing." He winked at her.

"What's this all about? Does this have anything to do with Taylor's text message?"

"Yes, it does. I used her phone, since you probably wouldn't even read one from mine," Troy told her, with a slight blush creeping up on her. She would have deleted it right then and there, and they both knew it. "But anyway, I brought you the daisy because a daisy means 'Loyal Love', which I haven't been doing much of lately. I've been busy, and sadly it took me forever to realize it."

"Troy... This is so sweet," She said, tears brimming her eyes. "I- I should have come to you before this got out of hand. I'm the one to blame."

"Gabriella," Like before, he placed a finger on her lips. "Both of us are to blame. Actually, I was making up excuses because I was planning something special. I had noticed our time together had gone down, but I didn't realize that you were bothered by it. Anyway, I was so busy putting our meetings off to plan this... thing... that I started straying away from the person this 'thing' was going to be special to." Troy pulled Gabriella into a hug, which they continued for a little bit, until a squeaky voice interrupted.

"Just kiss 'em already! Like on 'The Little Mermaid'!" Gabriella snapped her head around, to see two children staring through the open doorway.

"Brian! Kaytlin!" She groaned. "You're supposed to be in bed!"

"We were, but we heard the door open and wondered what was going on. So are you going to kiss him or not?" Kaytlin replied impatiently.

"Of course." She replied, happily closing the gap between their faces. The two at the door began to giggle and 'Ooh' at the couple.

They broke apart, and Gabriella turned her attention back to the kids at the door.

"Okay, I kissed him. Bedtime." She smirked at them, as they sighed and began their journey up the stairs. Once they were in bed, she closed the front door, leaving the two on the doorstep.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow... Since it's Saturday, I was thinking that you'd want to go to our usual ice cream spot?" Gabriella asked hopefully, opening the door again to go inside.

"Wait, Gabriella!" Troy grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"What is it Troy? The Bekhands will be back soon, and I'd rather not get caught with a guy on their doorstep..."

"It's just... you know those plans I was talking about?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I think I'm going to skip those, and just do what I was planning to do now..."

"What would that be?" Gabriella asked, curious as to why Troy was making 'special plans' in the first place.

"The original plan was to go somewhere nice. A quiet place, for me to tell you something." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"That would be...?" Gabriella quieted, her heart pounding in her chest. Troy leaned over, whispering three little words in her ear.

"I love you." Gabriella caught her breath, speechless.

"I-I love you too." She stuttered, as Troy pulled something out of his jacket.

"Before you say anything else," He began, handing her a red tulip. "The red tulip is a declaration of love, which in this case, fits the moment."

"Troy..." She took the flower, adding it to the other one in her hand.

"And," He silenced her, pulling another tulip out of his jacket, this one being yellow in color. "The yellow tulip means 'there is sunshine in your smile'. But let's just say it's a flower for your troubles." Troy handed her the flower, as she kissed him once more.

"You do realize that flowers don't solve everything, right?" Gabriella smirked, repeating the question she had asked him almost a year ago to that day.

"Yes, but I do have to admit, it's worked so far."

Another sweet and fluffy oneshot. Also, if you like bittersweet stories, I suggest the book I mentioned earlier (Don't Die, My Love). It's sweet, and I promise it'll make you cry.